They're Throwing Money At You To Stay. Here's How To Handle A Counter-Offer.

We are seeing more counter-offers again.

Not because the market suddenly got easy. Because replacing mid-level and senior people in IT, digital, finance and corporate is slow and expensive, and a resignation lands as an operational problem as much as a people one. Underutilisation is still high, so the inbox is busy, but the person who actually knows your systems is hard to replace quickly. Wage growth ran at 2.0 percent over the year to June while inflation ran at 4.1. Holding someone with cash looks cheaper than a three-month gap and a messy handover.

So employers throw money. Candidates feel flattered, conflicted, and sometimes stuck. Hiring managers who just made an offer watch the clock.

We have written a short version of this for transformation hires before. This is the fuller version for both sides: should you counter, and should you take it.

Why the money arrives late

A counter-offer usually shows up after someone has already decided to leave, or at least decided to look.

That timing matters. The pay rise was available when they were still loyal. It arrives when they are halfway out the door. Both sides know it. The number can be real. The relationship has already changed.

People rarely leave for money alone. They leave because of the work, the manager, the lack of progression, the sense of being stuck, or a better problem somewhere else. A bigger package does not rewrite those reasons. It buys time.

Plenty of people who accept a counter-offer are looking again within a year. The underlying reasons were still there, and now their loyalty is in question on top of it. That is not a moral judgement. It is what usually happens when cash is used to paper over a decision that was already made.

If you are the candidate

Decide before the counter arrives, not in the meeting where it is offered.

Write down, privately, why you started looking. Be specific. "More money" is allowed, but dig one layer under it. Is it the work? The manager? The ceiling? If cash was the only issue, a counter might genuinely fix it. If it was not, cash will feel good for a fortnight and thin after that.

When the new offer is real, tell your current employer you are leaving for reasons you can stand behind. You do not need a speech. You do need clarity. If they counter, you already know whether money was the missing piece.

Questions worth answering before you say yes to staying:

1. Would this number have kept you if they had offered it three months ago, unprompted?

2. What, exactly, changes in the work, the mandate, or the manager, or is it only the package?

3. How will you feel in six months if nothing else moved?

4. Are you staying because the new role scared you, or because this one got better?

If you take the counter, do it cleanly. Do not keep the other offer warm as a backup while you "see how it goes". That wastes everyone's time. If you decline the counter and leave, leave well. New Zealand is small. The people in that room will show up again.

General information only, not financial advice. Talk to your own advisor about your situation.

If you are the manager trying to keep someone

Ask whether you are solving the right problem.

A counter that only matches or beats the external offer is a retention bet on cash. Sometimes that is the right bet, especially if the person was underpaid against the market and everything else was fine. Often it is not. If they wanted different work, a different manager, or a real path, money is a delay, not a fix.

Before you counter, answer these:

1. Why did they look, in their words, not yours?

2. What can you actually change in the next 90 days besides pay?

3. Are you countering because they are critical, or because replacing them this quarter would hurt?

4. What happens to trust on the team if they stay after resigning?

If the honest answers are "they are critical" and "we can fix the real issue", a counter plus a written plan can work. If the honest answers are "we cannot replace them fast enough" and "nothing else will change", you are buying months, not loyalty. Budget for the second resignation.

There is also a fairness cost. The people who did not resign are watching. A sudden market adjustment only for the person who threatened to leave teaches the wrong lesson.

If you are the hiring manager who just made the offer

Win before the counter, not after.

Move quickly. An offer that lands weeks after the final interview gives the current employer time to get organised. Make sure the candidate is sold on the work and the mandate, not only the package. Have the counter-offer conversation early: "If they ask you to stay, what will you do?" A candidate who has already thought it through is harder to buy back.

Do not badmouth their current employer. Do not inflate pressure. Do restate why the role exists and what they would own. The thing a counter cannot easily match is a better challenge with a clear mandate.

If they take the counter, protect your process. Keep a credible second candidate warm where you can, and do not take it personally. In this market, counters are common. Losing one late is expensive. Designing a process that assumes they might happen is cheaper.

A straight answer to "should they?"

Should employers throw money to keep people? Sometimes yes, when pay was the real gap and the work is still right. Often no, when cash is a shortcut past a broken brief, a stuck career path, or a manager problem.

Should candidates take it? Only if the reasons they wanted to leave are actually addressed. A bigger number on the same frustration is a short lease.

We wrote separately about how to have a useful pay conversation when wage growth sits under inflation, and about winning senior hires before a counter shows up on a transformation programme.

If you are weighing a counter, or trying to keep someone critical in Auckland or Wellington, get in touch with the Find team. We will give you a straight read.